Top award for Scots disability lawyer
30 Jun 05
DRC's Lynn Welsh takes employment team award for success in Archibald case
A Scots solicitor at the Disability Rights Commission has beaten the cream of the City's employment lawyers to a prestigious award in recognition of her work for a disabled Fife woman.
Lynn Welsh, the DRC's Head of Scottish Legal Affairs, and her colleagues have been announced as the winners of The Lawyer magazine's Employment Team of the Year award.
The prize recognises their success in the House of Lords, after failing in the lower courts, in the Disability Discrimination Act case Archibald v Fife Council. They acted for Susan Archibald, who claimed that the council had acted in breach of the Act in requiring her to compete for alternative posts which she was able to perform, after she became disabled from carrying out the duties of her previous post with the council.
Lynn Welsh said: "We welcome this award which acknowledges the DRC legal team's dedication to improving disabled people's rights as well as the importance of this particular case. We fought with Mrs Archibald for three years to achieve this outcome. The Lords' decision clarified the law and strengthened disabled rights not just in Scotland but across Great Britain. It is particularly gratifying for a public body like the DRC to win against such stiff competition from mainly London-based private law firms."